Did you know that remedies from the Amazon rainforest have been saving lives for a long time now? Science continues to discover plants and animals that show great promise in medicine.
For more than a year now, we have had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic . The crisis has undoubtedly allowed many people to now know a lot about health issues, vaccines, etc. However, a piece of news may have gone fairly unnoticed by most citizens. Indeed, in April 2020 in France, the resuscitation services of hospitals were announcing a shortage of "curare".
Extracted from certain Amazonian vines, curare has been used for centuries as a poison by Native Americans. They coat their arrows with it, which they throw with a blowgun to hunt. Moments after being hit, the game is poisoned by muscle paralysis. In the 16th century, the Swiss physician Paracelsus, father of toxicology, rightly thought that this deadly poison could be used as medicine thanks to a precise dosage.
Today, curare is frequently used in surgical or intensive care units. It prevents the transmission of motor nerve impulses to skeletal muscles. This neuromuscular blockage thus causes muscle relaxation. In the case of acute respiratory distress syndrome (severe form of Covid-19), curare facilitates ventilation by allowing significant relaxation in the chest wall.
In his book The Amazon:What Everyone Needs to Know (2020), the American ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin recalls that curare is not the only drug from the Amazon. Some remedies current, but also to come are from this region. In 2019, Brazilian researchers claimed to have discovered a new natural Viagra, namely a molecule derived from the venom of the banana spider (Phoneutria nigriventer).
Also mention the species treeCroton lechleri , producing a sap known as "dragon's blood". For centuries, Native Americans have used it to treat infections , inflammations and other injuries. For some time now, it has become a question of using it to treat diarrhea and, even more surprisingly, HIV. Let's also mention the poison dart frogs of the family Dendrobatidae . Many species secrete toxic alkaloids through their skin as a means of defense against their predators. Researchers have studied these amphibians for a better understanding of anesthesia topical and anticonvulsants.
In addition, bats secrete draculin, a substance that thins the blood of its prey. As for the backs of monkey frogs (Phyllomedusa bicolor), this one is covered with kambo. It is a natural opioid forty times more potent than morphine . Finally, the active ingredient of hallucinogenic mushrooms, namely psilocybin, is currently a prime candidate for treating anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress.
